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The Voice (U.S. TV Series)
The Voice is an American reality television singing competition broadcast on NBC. Based on the original The Voice of Holland, the concept of the series is to find new singing talent (solos) contested by aspiring singers, age 15 or over,2 drawn from public auditions. The winner is determined by television viewers voting by telephone, Internet, SMS text, and iTunes Store purchases of the audio-recorded artists' vocal performances. They receive US$100,000 and a "record deal" with Universal Music Group for winning the competition. There have been seventeen winners of the show to date: Sarah Martin, Calvin Sierra, Boyd Bedwell, Katherine McLean, Leanne Lovell, Vaughn Lehoux, Maggie Iverson, Anissa Matlock, Derek Owens, Eddie Hardy, Samuel Caouette, Miranda Anne Corley, Taylor Rhodes, Justin Johnson, Randy Boyer, Dianne Christopher, Max Abrahams, Daniel Underwood, and Steve Martinez. The Voice began airing on April 26, 2011, as a spring TV season program. The show proved to be a hit for NBC and was subsequently expanded into the fall cycle when season three premiered on September 10, 2012. The series employs a panel of four coaches who critique the artists' performances. Each coach guides their teams of selected artists through the remainder of the season. They also compete to ensure that their act wins the competition, thus making them the winning coach. The original coaching panel consisted of Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Pharrell Williams, and Gwen Stefani. Shakira and Usher took the places of Williams and Stefani in seasons two, four, six, eight (for Usher), and ten. Christina Aguilera replaced Gwen Stefani in season five and replaced Shakira in season eight. In season eleven, it was announced that Usher and Shakira would not be returning as coaches, and Gwen Stefani wouldn't be either, so Williams and Aguilera were promated as coaches along with two new coaches starting in season eleven, Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift. Conception An adaption of The Voice of Holland, NBC announced the show under the name The Voice of America in December 2010; its name was soon shortened to The Voice. In each season, the winner receives $100,000 and a record deal with Universal Republic Records (seasons 1 & 2), Universal Music Group (season 3–). Selection process and format Each season begins with the "Blind Auditions", where coaches form their twelve member team whom they mentor through the remainder of the season. The coaches' chairs are faced towards the audience during artists' performances; those interested in an artist press their button, which turns their chair towards the artist and illuminates the bottom of the chair to read "I want you." At the conclusion of the performance, an artist either defaults to the only coach who turned around, or selects his or her coach if more than one coach expresses interest. In the "Battle Rounds", each coach pairs two of his or her team members to perform together, then chooses one to advance in the competition. In each season, coaches are assisted by celebrity mentors that are different each season. A new element was added in season three; coaches were given two "steals", allowing each coach to select two individuals who were eliminated during a battle round by another coach. The Knockout Rounds are when a pair of artists within a team are selected to sing individual performances in succession. They are not told until a few minutes prior to their performances who their partner is. The artists get to choose their own songs in this round, although they continue to get help and advice from their respective coaches. At the conclusion of the performances, coaches would decide which one of each pair gets to advance to the next round. Just like in the battle rounds, the coaches can steal one eliminated artist from another coach. In the final live performance phase of the competition, artists perform in weekly shows, where public voting narrows to a final group of artists and eventually declares a winner. The coaches have the power to save one artist that had not received the public's vote that week. As of season five, these artists would give a last chance performance to win the Twitter Instant Save. Voting System In a first for a music competition series, NBC and Universal Republic Records offered fans of the show the ability to vote for their favorite artists by purchasing the studio versions of the songs that they perform on the live show each week via the iTunes Store. Alternative methods of voting can be done through toll-free phone calls, text messaging (provided by Sprint), the show's app, and through online votes via NBC.com and Facebook. Each method is limited to ten votes per user. Voting lasts for twelve hours after the live shows. As of the top 12 results show of season three, producers made changes in the voting system with regards to iTunes singles purchases. Previous voting via iTunes purchases of contestant performances had previously only counted singly during the official voting window and only accredited to the live show in concern. If a competitor's performance charts within the Top 10 of the iTunes "Top 200 Singles Chart" during this window, it will be given an iTunes bonus that multiplies iTunes votes made in the 12-hour voting window by ten. Starting in season five, the iTunes bonus multiplier is now five for the studio versions of the songs performed by the competitors. The finale's vote count will include a 'Cumulative iTunes Vote Total' of all singles (from top 12 onwards) purchased during and outside of the various voting windows, with iTunes bonuses previously earned. Only the studio recording of the contestants' performances, not the live performance, are available on iTunes. In the first season, the battle rounds were recorded in the studio with both artists in the pairing. However, from season two onwards, only the winner's version of the song from the battle round is released. Season seven to present reverted back to the old style of both artists. With the Knockout Rounds, only the winner's single is released. The "Instant Save" was introduced in season five. During the live elimination episodes, viewers are given a five-minute window to vote for the contestants in danger of elimination by using their Twitter account to decide which contestant will move on to the next show, starting with the Top 12. Coaches and hosts Carson Daly has hosted The Voice since it's inauguration in 2011. Series overview Team Adam Team Gwen Team Pharrell Team Blake Team Shakira Team Usher Team Christina Team Dan Team Taylor